November 28th, 2018
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To change the economics of space around the Moon – that’s the plan from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). A leading smallsat developer, SSTL is designing a low cost, roughly 80 pound (35 kilograms) lunar communications satellite mission called Demonstration of Technology-4, or DoT-4 for space shorthand. Targeted for a 2021 launch, DoT-4 will be […]
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Mega-constellations consisting of tens, hundreds and even thousands of satellites in non-geostationary orbits are now being proposed to bring affordable broadband and other services to the world. However, investors in and operators of such constellations must clear multiple hurdles before getting their hardware off the ground, including rounds of technical reviews, securing financing and gaining […]
The walking and hopping quadruped robot is currently being tested in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Yard. “Legged robots can traverse unstructured terrain and could be used to explore areas of interest, such as craters, which rovers are unable to reach,” explains team member Patrick Barton. “As they are very versatile, they can change […]
Forget about shooting off interstellar probes, chips, plaques and records, or keepsake mementos…whatever. How about launching the Earth outward? China’s “The Wandering Earth,” is set to hit Chinese movie screens on February 5 of next year – Chinese New Year in Chinese theaters. The film is adapted from a same name short story novel in […]
The entry of the InSight Mars lander may be caught by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). “The parachute image will be a distant view and probably smeared, so not a good looking image but still useful for engineering evaluation,” explains Alfred McEwen, the Principal Investigator of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) for the […]
A Swiss space startup produces wristwatches made from the “upcycled” material of flown space rockets. Zurich-based Werenbach is the start-up company offering “Race to Space Editions” of watches that incorporate materials from two rockets. The watches belong to the MACH33 family. All models contain not just material from the respective space rocket […]
Future extraterrestrial romps by humans on the Moon can get a lunar leg up by training on Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands. A European Space Agency (ESA) test campaign combines geology and space exploration with high-tech equipment. The Pangaea geology field course is called Pangaea-X. Moon-targeted experiments For example, the week-long dry-run includes […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2237 tasks. “Curiosity is planning a smorgasbord of science over the next few days as it awaits results from digesting the ‘Highfield’ drill target material,” reports Fred Calef, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Also on tap is continuing change detection observations […]
A new deep dive report on China’s space industry has been completed by Euroconsult. The report — China Space Industry 2018 – notes that the China space value chain had an estimated size of more than $16 billion in 2017, with the downstream market accounting for just over 85%. Satellite Navigation, one of the key […]
A new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. focuses on the cost of creating a new military service for space, known as the Space Force. Doing so is likely to be a hotly debated issue in the FY 2020 legislative cycle. According to the CSIS report, one of […]
